Hulao Pass. The mountain wind howled, banners atop the pass snapped in the gale, and spears and halberds gleamed with chilling menace. It was past four in the morning, the coldest hour of the day, not to mention that it was winter. The soldiers on the pass had all been frozen until their lips turned dark purple and their skin stiffened. Just then, an armored officer suddenly spotted a faint glow of fire in the eastern sky. If flames could be seen from such a distance, there had to be a massive blaze over there. Not daring to delay, the officer hurriedly reported it to his superior on night watch. The news was passed up through layer after layer until it finally reached Li Ru.
Li Ru was Dong Zhuo's son-in-law as well as his "dog-headed strategist," deeply trusted by Dong Zhuo and consulted on matters great and small. Dong Zhuo's taking advantage of the chaos to enter the capital, persuading Lü Bu to surrender, deposing and enthroning emperors, and later relocating the capital to Chang'an—all of it had depended on Li Ru's counsel. It could be said that Li Ru deserved the foremost credit for Dong Zhuo's current rise to power. Since Dong Zhuo had personally led this campaign, he naturally brought Li Ru along to devise strategies. During this period, Li Ru had risen early and retired late, racking his brains for a way to crush the alliance of feudal lords. Unfortunately, his opponents were Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei. Though ingenious schemes flowed endlessly from him, they ultimately achieved little. So he began considering how to sow discord and divide the alliance.
What he had not expected was that while he was trying every possible way to get the various feudal lords killed,